Seychelles News

Measles is a highly infectious viral disease caused by a Morbillivirus. It only affects humans and rapidly spreads among individuals who have not been vaccinated. It is also the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths among children worldwide.

Seychelles has joined many other countries in the world in strengthening its efforts to prevent cervical cancer and other Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)-related diseases amongst its population. This is being done in an effort to reduce girls’ risk of developing HPV related cancers by as much as 80%. Since May 2014, the Ministry of Health has introduced the HPV vaccine into its routine immunization schedule.

Victoria, Seychelles 19 May 2016 - The Seychelles islands have welcomed Mr Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General on a two day historical visit in the country from the 7th to the 8th of May 2016. Mr. Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the small island state follows the invitation of the President of the Republic of Seychelles Mr James Michel, who was at the Seychelles International Airport to meet the UN Secretary on his arrival Saturday. Mr Ban is the first sitting UN secretary general to visit Seychelles since the country joined the Organisation in September 1976.

Seychelles has placed the improvement in the quality of services its population receives as one of the key policy thrusts that will consolidate the achievements of Universal Health Coverage that it has so far attained. To this end, an increased focus on person centred care is one of the strategic thrusts the country is pursuing to facilitate achievement of this goal. Person centred care calls for a complete rethink of the way health and related services are designed, provided and monitored.

“It is indeed a pleasure, to be a part of this very important Symposium, on person-centred care. This is a concept that is well-integrated into WHOs thinking and approach to attainment of the global health goals.

As we are all aware, the global health agenda has coalesced around the need to assure sustained Universal Health Coverage with services that are important to them. This agenda is built around the need to ensure our people have the right to health, and are healthy enough to contribute to their personal, community and national development.

“I bring the full endorsement of the government of Seychelles as we embark on this crucial symposium on person-centered care.  I also bring back to the fore the tenacity with which Ministers after Ministers of Health have been imploring you the devoted health care professionals, to improve the quality of your care,  to show even more compassion, to improve the dated appointment system and to cut short the perceived long waiting lists. These are all core actions if we really want to model our care on the person. 

“We have done a lot of work during the past few days. More than you would even imagine!

Dr. Delanyo Dovlo, the Director for Health Systems and Services at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, arrived in Seychelles in the middle of the week and, immediately after, he held three meetings with us.  First he met with the Minister of Health, then he met with the technical and management team of the Ministry and subsequently, with the management team of the Health Care Agency.

The Government of Seychelles has called for a scale up of mentalhealthservices so as to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, endorsed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.

The Government of Seychelles has welcomed the arrival of the new World Health Organisation Liaison Officer (WLO), Dr. Bhupinder Aulakh into office.  On her arrival into office, accompanied by the outgoing acting WLO Dr Humphrey Karamagi, Dr Aulakh paid a courtesy call to the Minister of Health and Senior Management on April 18th.

It was the Minister of Health Honorable Jean-Paul Adam who officially welcomed Dr Aulakh into office, expressing the gratitude of the Government of Seychelles to the continuous technical and financial support provided by the organisation. 

Four World Health Organisation (WHO) Consultants from the WHO Inter-country Support Team for East and Southern Africa (IST-ESA), Headquarters and Kenya and Zimbabwe Country offices were in the country recently to assist with the conduct of the country’s Comprehensive Immunization program integrated with in-depth Surveillance review.

In adherence to WHO standards, all countries are expected to carry out such a review every 5 years as a way to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the EPI programme.